Bugsy

She's almost round when she tucks her feet beneath her. Her head launches forward, pink ears so thin the light can be seen through them. Her eyes are red rimmed. Poppy told Carrie she had a hangover. She looked at me and smiled as she noted me giving a negative shake of my head.

Bugsy is solid white with pink and red accents. Do the bright lights hurt his/her eyes? ..is Bugsy a male or female?

I made some phone calls this morning to a relative to ask some questions on rabbit raising. When we were children we had pet rabbits. Lots of pet rabbits. Hundreds of pet rabbits. When you went to sleep at night and woke to a fresh day, we had more rabbits. The old saying "multiplying like rabbits" is a proven fact. I don't even have to look it up on Snopes.

Our rabbits ran free. They slept beneath the outbuildings and played in the yard amongst our dogs. Never a rabbit was attacked by their friends, the dogs. I remember the rabbit pellets we fed them. These rabbits were not coddled.  If I knew anything about rabbits way back then I've forgotten everything now.

The husband made a little cage months again in anticipation of Bugsy's arrival. It's one foot wide by two feet long, chicken wire attached to 1X's, a door that closes and latches and a metal handle on top to carry him around.

Carrie's dad has promised her this bunny for months and months and this past weekend she got him/her. He was supposed to be kept at her dad's house but I told her she could bring him to visit for a week and then take him home again when she visited her dad. She bought him here Sunday. I now find out she won't be visiting her dad for two weeks. I now have a pet.

I have Bugsy sitting on the table on the patio in his little cage. Fresh clover fills his food dish and water is in a souffle cup.

The husband has gone to Home Depot. Bugsy cannot stay caged in that little carrying case. We are going to built a "rabbit run" for him. It will have chicken wire sides on a 4ft by 4ft wood frame, no deck. It will sit directly on clover and big big enough for him to get some exercise. We will be able to relocate Bugsy to different areas of the lawn by simply picking the whole thing up and plunking it down in a new area.

I was so relieved when the hermit crabs went to hermit crab heaven. Now we have a rabbit. Having pets is something I don't want to deal with any more. Technically, I really don't have a pet. Bugsy is on extended stay, a holiday if you will. We will make him comfortable for his time here and gladly help him to return home in a few weeks.

Good bye Bugsy. Don't forget your toothbrush. Don't forget to write. Send pictures. We will miss you.

I'm just practicing my 'goodbyes' that will be needed in a few weeks.

P.S. I must pick a gender and stay with it on this bunny thing. I"m all over the place with the 'she" and the "he"...so it will be "she..and that's final. Just in case she roams some day and ends up preggers. I think referring to her as "she " is the safest way to go.

Aches and Pains and Trips and Travel

Did our parents when reaching the Golden Year have aches and pains? Were we so busy with our healthy bodies that we never listened or just ignored them if they mentioned minor aches and pains? Maybe they just tolerated them and never mentioned them?

 

My gums are inflamed, the muscles in that  prosthetic knee occasionally cramps and my sinuses are such an aggravation and on a daily basis that mentioning them would become redundant.

 

I compare myself to friends with arthritis in their joints, skin conditions, heart conditions and breathing problems and know that not mentioning my minor irritations is probably why my parents never said anything. If they were able to get up and around, do daily chores and take care of themselves, they were grateful.

 

I just mentioned to the husband the other day,  I want to make a trip abroad. Usually he balks at even talking about it. This day he asked "Where do you want to go?" A step forward.

 

I mentioned flying into Amsterdam and staying for a few day then travel slowly south through Germany, loop down through Italy and back to France....OR fly into Spain and travel around Spain and Portugal ending up on the British Isles.

 

He said "Plan the trip." and that is where we are stale mated.  I want him to sit down with a travel book for the countries we want to visit and plan an itinerary.

 

The last trip he took care of all the travel, I bought the train tickets here and we didn't have room reservations any where. We would drop into a town and look for a Pensione. Because we were traveling "off season" we were able to secure a bed every where we went. I would like to go back to Florence and Rome but there are so many other places I want to visit.

 

For now, I'm off to get dressed. Carrie is asleep in the bedroom and I have to get her lunch packed and get her to the bus stop in one hour. Did I mention Carrie got a rabbit? and he is here with us this week? Now if I can only remember he is here so I make sure he has food and water. I wouldn't want Carrie to come home and find a dehydrated bunny, tongue swollen and hanging out as she opened his cage.

 

I'm gone.

Saturday and Sunday

It's birthday month here around our house. The husband celebrated his on the 15th and mine will be on the 24th and on the 25th the husband will be heading for Oklahoma on a job that has been scheduled.

We had dinner at the casino after the husband played the tables for a while. I hung out in the casino coffee shop with pencil and paper. I'm going to start doing "a face a day" and do more practice with the pastels. 

The past week has been a busy time around here. The much awaited arrival of the daughter's Jeep from the mechanic happened. And one day later Ted lost his truck in a head on collision. Always something. I'm of the belief that if everything is going along fine, beware. Nothing stays bad forever and nothing stays good forever. I'm always waiting for the axe to fall. I suppose you could say I'm a pessimist?

Ted has now a used Honda Accord, a car famous for getting high mileage. It has 86,000 miles on it, new tires and  the body is a little rough in a few places. You have to know where to look to see the imperfections. If it gets him through his college years, I'll be most grateful. Buying a used car is a crap shoot. I hold my breath; it almost drives me to prayer but not quite.

Here it is Sunday and the end of the weekend. I have no acitivities that require me to get dressed and go out into the chill of ths day. I'm going to do exactly what I did yesterday..veg out and watch TV.

Dear Joe

I sit here contemplating a letter to one of my brothers.

 

He appears to have gotten himself incarcerated and it's mostly out of stupidity. Sometimes people just don't know when silence is the best choice. Regardless of the reasons he felt and the emotions involved with his outburst with his empty threats, he will be made an example of.

 

Writing a letter to him, I'm stalled on what to say. Recriminations are not necessary. I'm sure that after months of having "alone" time sitting there in his cell, the wind has left his sails.

 

I reel back through the years to when we were children sharing the same house. Seven children and seven personalities and parents that seldom hid any strife amongst themselves from these children.

 

I'm older and wiser and have seen some wonderful examples of parenting and those lessons involved no violence. Children are dealt with firmly and consistently. The consistency in child rearing is the key along with spending time and listening to them.

 

I'm not saying I did it right either. We are a product of our upbringing but everyone is capable of learning. It just takes the "want and the will".

 

Joe left home early to earn an income. He was always generous with his money when he came home to visit knowing how scarce it was in our household. He can't be described as "slick" or 'classy' but he is genuine. I've never known him to intentionally hurt anyone; he can always be called upon to help someone in distress. This is how I know him.

 

To the public he is a junk collector, living in a home and on land that is unkempt, junked up and a far cry from anything resembling a sanitary area. I don't understand this as he was raised in a clean home where the floors were swept and mopped daily, meals served on a long table where the family gathered for their three meals a day. A long bench sat on one side of the table and the four youngest occupied it while the other three children sat on chairs along the opposite side with Dad at the head of the table and my mother opposite. We ate what was served; no special orders allowed or even considered.

If you stood on the front porch and looked into the living room and on into the kitchen, the linoleum floor clean and with a fresh shine on from the liquid wax, was marred with the edges of the boards beneath that had warped with age. I shall never forget those blue roses adorning the wallpaper that covered all four walls in that small living room. A nylon sofa, rigid and uncomfortable stood along one wall, mismatched lamps, and green fiberglass curtains made up the remaining decor of the room. On the wall closest to front door, an iron stove commanded a space. This was our only source of heat during the winter months. We would rush downstairs in the winter months to huddle back turned to that stove. As one, we all did an about face to warm the other side. Everyone dressed quickly during those months. Joe is in those memories.

 

Joe worked alongside our father be it chopping wood, cutting tobacco, or care of the animals and the crops. Joe wasn't shy of work. He was never cruel or mean to his siblings. He was busy and out of the house was where he preferred to be.

 

The family split up when I was about 15yrs old. Joe would have been 19. He went into construction work, following in Dad's footsteps. When he would come home for the weekends, we younger ones would raid his "card/poker money change" and his cooler which was always full of pop. He never complained. If Joe had money he was quick to share with his younger siblings. We "borrowed" his car and used all his gas. Never a complaint.

 

The years passed, we all moved in our separate directions and I left the east to travel the west.

 

I have been gone for many years and though an occasional phone conversation with him or a quick visit when I made the drive back into WV from wherever in the USA I was living, I would try to touch base with him. He was always happy to see any of his brothers and sisters. Joe is loyal. He may be a lot of other things to other people but to family he does have special feelings.

 

I'm saddened to know that he is living in a cell awaiting a trial some day soon.

 

Here's to you brother Joe; my best wishes and hopes that someone sees the good in you; the kind person you really are and things go a little lightly for you.

 

Sis